By Ted J. Rau for Enlivening Edge Magazine
We in Sociocracy For All believe that movement-building has to be about real people on the ground, the pioneers who are already building a non-coercive future of work that we long to see in all places where people come together to make good things happen.
There are lots of great experiments going on in the sociocracy corner of the self-management world. At our upcoming online conference, 20 sociocratic organizations will share stories about their use of sociocracy.
The organizations range in size between 6 and 2000 members, and they include associations, for-profits, communities, non-profits, schools and cooperatives from 14 countries in Europe, South America, North America, and Australia.
Sociocracy For All is about community and skill, about experimentation and movement-building. That is why we wanted the practitioners in the organizations to present themselves, first-hand, how things are going.
They will show how they organize themselves, how they transitioned into being self-governed organizations, what discussions needed to be had, and what they have learned in the process.
At the end of the conference, a virtual open space will allow groups to self-organize, as well as language-oriented groups hosted by ally organizations and SoFA divisions (the German Sociocratic Center, Sociocracy Brasil, SoFA Italia, Sociocracia práctica/Spanish).
This conference is relevant to all consultants and practitioners interested in new forms of working together. Seeing this amazing cross-cut through that many organizations will help consultants and practitioners see the patterns of what to expect, what works and what remains hard when we use circle-based governance frameworks like sociocracy.
It’s not a promotional conference. It’s not about theory or “what should be”. It’s about real-life experiences.
The showcases are framed by inspirational talks. Among them is the prime minister of the national children’s parliament in India, 17-year-old Gnanasekar Dhanapal. We consider the children’s parliament the largest sociocratic organization in the world, with hundreds of thousands of people involved, and being replicated in Africa and the Americas. He will talk about the difference the parliaments and sociocratic elections made in his village and his region and in his own path.
Link to register: http://conference.sociocracyforall.org
Enlivening Edge is happily an affiliate partner of this event. Please indicate EE on the registration form.
Ted is co-founder of Sociocracy For All and teaches, consults, and coaches for sociocratic organizations. He co-authored the sociocracy handbook “Many Voices, One Song. Shared power with sociocracy“.
He is interested in real-life governance that improves how we relate to each other wherever we make shared decisions. Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-j-rau-bb75a513b/
